Metal Reactions

[music man]

I am writing a lab report from an experiment that requires you to test metal reactions by combining them in cold water, hot water and dilute hydrochloric acid and I am answering questions for the "Discussion" part of the report and one of the questions is "Did any metal(s) not react in your experiments? Which ones? What does this tell you about them? The tin, aluminum and zinc did not react. I am not what this tells me about them. I would appreciate as soon as I can get it.

 

Thanks,

Music man

[Riogho]

It tells you that they don't react in hot or cold water.

[hermanntrude]

I wouldn't usually give an answer to a homework question but I think in this case the answer is less complicated than you think. I think all that they're looking for is that the metals are unreactive. Perhaps they're looking for something more specific, in which case i'd advise that you look up the "activity series"

[CaptainPanic]

It might tell you something about the Gibbs energy of reaction. But if you don't know what that means, then it's not the answer your teacher is looking for...

 

If you do know what it means, then you can also answer the question.

[hermanntrude]

badly worded question IMO

[elmejor]

I am writing a lab report from an experiment that requires you to test metal reactions by combining them in cold water, hot water and dilute hydrochloric acid and I am answering questions for the "Discussion" part of the report and one of the questions is "Did any metal(s) not react in your experiments? Which ones? What does this tell you about them? The tin, aluminum and zinc did not react. I am not what this tells me about them. I would appreciate as soon as I can get it.

 

Thanks,

Music man

 

tin, aluminium and zinc does not react with hot and cold water, they only react with steam

[Gilded]

tin, aluminium and zinc does not react with hot and cold water, they only react with steam

 

I can assure you that very finely divided aluminum powder will react with even cold water, sometimes heating up enough for ignition to happen.

[npts2020]

tin, aluminium and zinc does not react with hot and cold water, they only react with steam

 

I can assure you as well that zinc will rust in seawater even at near freezing temps. The only thing that changes with the temperature is the rate of oxidation, faster at higher temp.

[mabsj2]

Only Reactive metals like cold water. majority of these belong to group 1 and very few in group 2. other metals react with hot water or steam.

[hermanntrude]

I can assure you as well that zinc will rust in seawater even at near freezing temps. The only thing that changes with the temperature is the rate of oxidation, faster at higher temp.

 

while this is perfectly true, you're neglecting two things:

 

1) seawater is more corrosive than freshwater

2) the "rusting" you're talking about is very slow. It's not something you'd observe over the period of a 2 or 3 hour lab session, which is the timescale this question is asked in. Iron rusts too, but in the same experiment if a lump of iron was placed in cold water we'd say it was unreactive, because it'd take days week and months to see a significant corrosion, not minutes.

[npts2020]

while this is perfectly true, you're neglecting two things:

 

1) seawater is more corrosive than freshwater

2) the "rusting" you're talking about is very slow. It's not something you'd observe over the period of a 2 or 3 hour lab session, which is the timescale this question is asked in. Iron rusts too, but in the same experiment if a lump of iron was placed in cold water we'd say it was unreactive, because it'd take days week and months to see a significant corrosion, not minutes.

 

I was not thinking of any time constrictions, but I have seen first hand that zinc anodes rust in heat exchanger intake and discharges on board ship, even when the only waters they have been in are barely above freezing. You are right, of course, about noticing little change over the course of a few hours since those zinc anodes only require replacement on an annual or longer basis.